To Raze or Not To Raze

By Beth Herman In the film "Prizzi's Honor," Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner played hitmen (or hitpeople, to be politically correct) assigned, in parlance, to rub each other out. When Nicholson fell in love with his nemesis, he had a rather pivotal conversation with himself, ruminating, "Do I ice her; do I marry her? Do I ice her; do I marry her?"

When the time comes to decide whether to raze or preserve a cherished property, there are factors, like those in Nicholson's dilemma, that run the gamut from practical to emotional - and everything in between.

According to Amy Gardner of Bethesda, Maryland's Gardner Mohr Architects LLC, we live in different houses now. “People are living in housing stock which, whether from the turn-of-the-(last) century, pre-war, post war, 1950s or ‘60s – anything up to the ‘80s, doesn’t fit their lifestyles.” What’s more, they are “energy hogs,” Gardner observed, noting increasingly clients are approaching the firm with critical questions about saving or demolishing outmoded family homes.

Lowering the Boom

In the so-called boom years, Gardner recalled, about a 15-year period from the early 1990s into the first part of this decade, it was very common to see an older home in the greater D.C. metropolitan area destroyed, often by a builder to start a custom home on the order of 5,000-7,000 s.f., depending on site and zoning. Today, Gardner said, and even with problematical older homes, “We have a lot of clients come to us and say, ‘I love my neighborhood, the schools; I really don’t want to move. We’ve been looking at houses to buy and we’re not finding any place that’s better than what we have, and want to look at options to renovate and meet our family’s needs.’”

Aside from aesthetics which may involve poor configuration of space, and citing issues that may include antiquated mechanical systems, rotted siding, inadequate wiring (more common in turn-of-the-century homes), poor insulation, deteriorating roofs, movement around window openings, inferior HVAC systems and/or any combination of the aforementioned elements, which is often the case, Gardner said the decision to renovate vs. tear down and start over on the same lot is often painstaking – and highly expensive. “We can be talking hundreds of thousands of dollars,” she affirmed, maybe even something close to the cost of purchasing a new home. But, there are also different levels of renovation.

“Homeowners generally have to think about their long term goals when doing a thoroughgoing renovation,” Gardner explained, with “thoroughgoing” meaning the existing fabric of the house is maintained. “The money in – where the homeowner may not be able to get that money back out for quite some time, like if they were to turn around and want to sell that house – those values plus the renovation values are high enough that they really wouldn’t be able to sell right away.”

Gardner also indicated that in the firm’s purview, and considering sustainability factors which are naturally key in building issues today, “the most efficient use of materials are the ones you don’t throw out.” To that end, the architect believes in identifying the characteristics, qualities and strengths of the structure’s existing elements, keeping them and building on them to create something more attuned to contemporary sensibilities.

What’s Old Can Be New Again

Conceding that sometimes, especially at the outset of a project, the decision to save a house is something she considers an act of faith, Gardner, who is also a faculty member at the University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, explained that preserving can have different facets. “Preserving can mean anything from saving the foundations of the foundation wall and building from there, or all the way to preserving a house largely intact and doing a kind of interior renovation, to preserving the house intact and doing a complete gut of it with an addition, along with providing all new building systems and finishes,” she said. In the last iteration, you essentially get a whole new house without having completely torn down the one that was there.

Noting that the firm starts every project in this vein with an energy audit in order to understand the performance of the house and its systems, Gardner said at times she and her partner utilize the services of a structural engineer as well. The structure itself, a barometer of other failures (a cracking foundation wall could indicate possible water infiltration), is a good prognosticator of time and cost. That said, and even with the proverbial roof falling in, mitigating circumstances such as one that arose with a Gardner Mohr client a few years back involved a 1920s era bungalow, about which Gardner said “a sanity check would have indicated the house be torn down.” The foundation, however, was discovered to be comprised of 20-inch thick granite walls, and demolition alone would have been exceedingly difficult. “That was the tipping point for the decision-making process about preserving that house,” Gardner affirmed.

Also identifying current lot and zoning issues as major factors in the decision to retain and renovate, Gardner said because zoning laws are not static, on occasion people tear down and try to fill out the zoning envelope by building something as large as they can, which makes for an odd and cumbersome proportion between the house and the site. In the example of a current client in Bethesda undergoing renovation of a mid-century home they’d considered razing, Gardner said because of zoning, if they tore down the home, they could not rebuild with the same north/south orientation that has served the homeowners well. “While that may not sound like a big deal,” she explained, “right now it’s ideal for passive energy strategies, and they would lose that advantage.”

The Greening of the Girders

If one does decide to let go of a house and desires to do so within sustainable parameters, deconstruction is a green-friendly alternative to demolition, where depending on the deconstruction category, reusable and code-abiding materials from the building such as flooring, lighting fixtures, paneling, plumbing, bricks and lumber are stripped and can be donated to charity, precipitating a tax write-off.

“We believe in saving what we can save,” Gardner said about renovating vs. razing. “We believe in the fabric of the neighborhood and trying to preserve that, and, overall, I think there’s a kind of cultural value in trying to preserve these places.”

Photography by Celia Pearson

Cardozo Students Building a Home

Students from the Academy of Construction and Design at Cardozo Senior High School are set to break ground on a single family home next Tuesday. Nearly 300 students will gain valuable pre-apprenticeship experience in carpentry, electrical, HVAC and other technical specialties while building the 2,000 s.f. house. Sustainability is a key focus, as the District's first student-built house is set to employ energy efficient design, materials and construction. The vacant lot, donated by the District Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), will be reborn thanks to the program being dubbed "Build a House - Build a Future." The entire operation is sponsored by the nonprofit D.C. Students Construction Trades Foundation in partnership with District of Columbia Public Schools Career and Technical Education.

Architectural designs and site plans for the two-story home are courtesy of nearby Inscape Studio. And while teens normally can't even clean their rooms, students were even somewhat involved in the preliminary design process, says the Academy's head Shelly Karriem. "Students weren't included in the drawing process, but the design elements that they thought were important were relayed to the architects." Miller & Long will serve as general contractors and assist Academy instructors in overseeing the construction process. Although not physically involved, corporate sponsors like Clark Construction and Balfour Beatty have helped to make the program possible. Bridging the connection between a quality education today and an healthy, employed future, the Academy has been helping students recognize their potential, focus on their studies, and begin to plot their future careers. Since its inception in 2005, the Academy has seen a 90% graduation rate from its enrolled student body.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

Convention Center Financing Completes, Construction Begins

The Washington Convention and Sports Authority (WCSA) announced today that it has sold all of its $250,000,000 bond offering for construction of the convention center Marriott, removing the final obstacle to building the 1175-room hotel. Preliminary construction began this week, and will last an anticipated 3 and a half years to complete the building, ending in the spring of 2013.

The Marriott project is being headed by Quadrangle Development and Capstone Development, and will help the District compete with National Harbor. With an "A" rating from Standard and Poor's, the WCSA sold the entire $250m bond release authorized by the DC Council on the last day of September. The Authority intends to hold a formal ceremony to mark construction in November.

Washington DC real estate development news

GW Looks to Bury Law School Buildings

In 2006, Sherry Rutherford, former managing director of real estate planning and development at GWU, was quoted as saying the University's "mantra [for development] is up not out." She was referring to the strategy for increasing density on the Foggy Bottom campus in anticipation of their growing student population, without expanding beyond their current borders and encroaching on their residential neighbors, but to kick off their campus redevelopment action, GW has proposed a construction project that opts to build down and out. In 2006 the Zoning Commission approved the University's Campus Plan and First Stage zoning (PUD) for its Foggy Bottom campus. The plan laid out provisions and guidelines - how future development on the campus would play out, and also highlighted 16 specific locations fit for new construction, renovations, and improvements. The first stage plan also specified that all campus development projects henceforth would come back for a second stage PUD. Yesterday, the University applied for their first second stage PUD under the Campus Plan, and Zoning agreed to set down the hearing as a "contested case."

George Washington University intends to develop a plot of land (the northern half of Square 103) that has only recently become entirely controlled by the University (Lot 18 being the previously missing piece) through a land swap with Delta Tau Delta Fraternity. One Zoning Commission member found this selection of property, a plot of land not originally highlighted by the Campus Plan, to be "ironic." Further, the proposed development will go down, not up, by burrowing "23,281 s.f. of academic and administrative program space for the Law School" beneath the ground, along with a 392-space below-grade, four-level garage. Also going down will be several existing buildings on site, either during this initial or subsequent phases of development. While a portion of the Law School staff and administration will be relegated to a window-less, below-ground work space, the proposed development will provide the rest of the school body with "an attractive and sustainable improvement to the campus and surrounding streetscape...[that] incorporates sustainable design features intended to minimize stormwater runoff and encourage its reuse." The "attractive" surface improvements more specifically include 58 surface parking spaces, 64 covered bicycle parking spaces, and a covered entrance pavilion. The project was co-designed by architects at Perkins & Will and Shalom Baranes Associates. Wiles Mensch Corporation has undertaken civil engineering duties, and Oculus shouldered landscape-design responsibilities.

University developers intend to begin excavation of the property later this Fall, or as soon as the Zoning process allows, and expect that the construction period will last roughly 18-20 months. Phase II of this project calls for development in the skyward direction, but offering only that the project will consist of an in-fill, above ground building "which will be the subject of a future second-stage PUD application and Campus Plan application." As one can imagine, the Zoning Board expressed concern over the proposed above grade parking lot, and also voiced their wish to be better-informed about the specifics of the future above-ground developments. This and more will be discussed at the next Zoning hearing, scheduled for next month.

Clarification: In light of the accusations in the comment thread below, DCMud once again reached out to GW's Real Estate Development team in hopes of clarifying in discrepancies, this time with success. Suzy Cora of the University's development department confirmed that the factual validity of the published article is sound, and that no corrections needed to be issued. She did point out that although the words "contested case" were uttered during the set-down hearing, Board members quickly realized they could not officially classify the application as a "contested case," because no formal party has come forward in opposition yet. She also explained that the underground square footage being used for academic programming will not house staff and or administrators that sit in an office or behind desk all day, but instead for storing cataloged law journals that will be accessed by various staff and students for research purposes, only for a few hours at a time.

Washington D.C. Retail and commercial real estate news

New Marriott Almost Ready In Potomac Yards' National Gateway

Developer JBG reports that construction of their Renaissance Arlington Capital View in Potomac Yards is nearing completion and should be ready for an April 2011 opening. Matt Blocher of JBG describes the 300-room hotel, designed by Cooper Carry, as having "the soul of a boutique hotel with the location and amenities suited for business and leisure in and around the nation’s capital."

Situated at 2800 South Potomac Avenue in Arlington, Va, the hotel will offer 17,354 s.f. of flexible event space, including a gigantic ballroom and 13 smaller "break-out" rooms. Banquet and meeting rooms will be outfitted with cutting edge event technology like smartphone applications that enable lighting and audio adjustments, which could become a problem when bored-to-death audience members at the annual pharmaceutical conference learn how to hack into the system and implant inappropriate pictures into the power point presentations. Enhanced networks for cell phone and internet connectivity will allow business conference attendees to efficiently adjust their fantasy football rosters amid stuffy status meetings. It's expected that the hotel and the developing Potomac Yards center will serve as a hub for business travelers; with it's convenient proximity to the offices of PBS, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and IBM, as well as government agencies such as the Pentagon and EPA, and Reagan National Airport, it will surely see an increasing load of visitors upon its official unveiling.

Included on site will be 5,000 s.f. of retail at the corner of 29th and Crystal Ave, a 5,000 s.f. restaurant inside the Renaissance Hotel, and an Illy-branded coffee shop. A below-grade parking garage with 522 spaces will eventually connect the Renaissance Hotel to the separately operated but co-planned and developed 325-room Residence Inn. Both hotels are expected to be the first LEED certified hotels in Arlington County, each with a landscaped green roof and various other sustainable features. The hotel-complex is an important aspect of the expansive 15 acre, 1.5-mile-long development strip being dubbed the "National Gateway at Potomac Yards" which is set to feature 2,848,000 s.f. of office, residential, hotel, and retail space. The project is expected to exceed some $1 billion by the time of completion. "National Gateway" is being developed by the Meridian Group.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

Transforming Pee-wee’s Playhouse

By Beth Herman

For a bilingual 3-year-old in Washington, her father’s Russian heritage and a TV program’s format resulted in an unprecedented bedroom design challenge where Vienna, Va.-based interior designer Rachel James was concerned.

As a guest designer on HGTV’s child-centric program “Kidspace,” the former elementary, middle and high school guidance counselor-turned-designer, celebrated for her inspired children’s designs, set out to honor the family’s legacy but also to cultivate the interests of a spirited toddler with a predilection for nesting, reading and hide-and-seek – all on a $1,000 budget. The result: a Russian-themed room that reflected the cathedrals of St. Petersburg, including a headboard reminiscent of the fabled onion domes of Russian architecture, and a special domed tent into which the child could escape with books and just about anything else.

“In real life,” James elaborated, “the cathedral domes are candy-colored.” To that end a wooden headboard was “jigsawed out,” with batting, and the colorful fabric stretched across. The top of the headboard consisted of wooden sconces turned upside-down to emulate the points of the cathedral: high and low. The English and Russian alphabets were splashed across an opposite wall, and instead of an all-too-popular pink, the designer chose a kid-friendly but more elegant shade of purple, with a little chandelier to boot, so that as the child grows there will be less need for an additional redecorating expenditure. “It spoke to the needs of the parents and the child’s own preferences,” James said, “and it also is a fun, colorful room for her to grow up in.”

Don’t Eat Paste

Color palette, parental ideas and the child’s personality all withstanding, James takes the concept of kids’ design quite seriously when it comes to issues of safety, functionality and the kinds of toxic emissions readily found in such items as carpeting, where glue, backing and stain guards contain high levels of VOC’s. “In a study I think was done in Europe,” James said, “they actually found those compounds in breast milk, so it’s getting to the child somehow.” The designer said that more and more, parents are interested in eco-friendly carpeting and while she believes no product is 100 percent green, there are rugs made of natural wool and backing. And on the heels of hundreds of reported child choking fatalities, James’ drapery workroom, Stephenson Vestal, is the noted inventor and initial manufacturer of the Safe-T-Shade, a cordless conveyor for Roman and Balloon shades that eliminates visible cords and their inherent threats to young children. They work on a spring issue, according to James, and have been endorsed by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. She uses them liberally, when warranted, in her kids’ room designs.

Out Came the Sun

Where window treatments are concerned, James recalled a client whose 4-year-old was waking up each day at about 4 in the morning, and the exhausted parents came to her inquiring about blackout shades. Incorporating such with their daughter’s penchant for princesses and ball gowns (translation: things that are sparkly, magical, light and airy) presented another design challenge for James.

“Window treatments are very expensive and good design, along with quality furniture, is also very expensive,” James said candidly. “And kids grow so fast and their preferences change so much, sometimes every day, the majority of my clients want something that’s going to grow with the child.” Blackout lining, for example, can be put into almost any kind of fabric aside from a sheer or mesh, so James took the child’s two favorite colors, pink and a “turquoise-y blue,” in a shimmery fabric, and made drapery panels that contained the blackout element. A standard pleat and traversing rod on top, which helps them open and close quickly, finished the concept. “It’s flashy and iridescent,” James recalled, “and at 12, she’ll like it. Maybe even at 16 or college age, she’ll like it.”

According to James, while there are plenty of “child-centered, child-themed, child-sized things, and some of these things are so hopelessly adorable you can’t help but get a little club chair or mini-desk,” most manufacturers today recognize that people buy things into which children will grow. Sometimes the price point is higher for furniture that lends itself to conversion, and you have to pay for a conversion kit, James said, but for many parents the cost of a kit for when the child makes the transition from crib to bed is better than buying a whole new bed, for example. “It all depends on the motivation of the client to keep redoing the room,” she added.

Where the Wild Things Are

Fabrics-wise, especially for kids of toddler age, James said it’s a function of being a kid to smash trucks, spill Kool-Aid or drop popsicles. Stores such as Jo-Ann and entities such as eBay are good resources for more inexpensive and so-called kid-proof fabrics, and people tend to gravitate towards Target, Kmart or Walmart for durable kids’ furnishings and the like. “I have a designer friend with two kids who has just slipcovered everything,” James quipped.

Because of her education and psychology background, James said parents are often excited because they know that she is really in touch with their child’s sensibilities. If the child is older, James includes him or her in the design process by asking about favorite colors, favorite things to do, where and how the child plays, and how the child would describe him or herself.

“I think just like with any other design, there is a balance between functional interiors and beautiful interiors,” James said of her child-centered motifs, adding that she really misses being in school with the kids. “At some point, I’d like to go back into the helping professions, but for now, I really love what I’m doing.”

Construction at New VIDA-U Street to Begin Shortly

Having recently secured a ten million dollar loan from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Urban Adventures Companies, headed by David Von Storch, will move forward with their plans to renovate and expand what is currently their corporate headquarters and soon-to-be "flagship" VIDA Fitness site at 1612 U St. NW. With Zoning approval already in hand, only the task of finalizing building permits stands between developers and initial construction; a groundbreaking is expected within the next two weeks.

What will become the fourth and by far the largest VIDA in the District is set to feature a 51,500-s.f., 4-story health club facility offering classes, state-of-the-art machines, personal trainers, and more. A 10,000 s.f., three-story "transparent, modern" expansion will allow for the tremendous increase in fitness-focused square footage; but don't worry preservationists (the DC Historic Preservation Review Board already gave the project a thumbs up), the addition is designed in a way that "complements and preserves the historic architecture of the existing circa 1921 building." To top it all off, literally, the new complex will be outfitted with a "rooftop club including a 60-foot pool, resort cabanas, communal fire pit, outdoor waterfall, sundeck and a membership lounge with full food and beverage service." For those willing to fork over the arm and leg for membership, the new location is sure to offer an array of tools to tone, shape, and relax your remaining two limbs. Some of the flashier amenities include a European sauna, steam room, endless pool, and infrared sauna (somewhere Liz Lemon is saying "I want to go to there"). If that's not enough, the new gym will also feature a 65-foot programmable illuminated interior color wall, which will offer close-up shots of unsuspecting gym-goers' cellulite lines for embarrassing but necessary fat-burning inspiration (just kidding it won't do that).

David Von Storch, who owns the building at 1612 U Street, refused a lease renewal of current tenant and fellow business rival Results Gym, enabling him to takeover the space and assemble all facets of his business enterprise under one roof. Upon completed renovation, all four Urban Adventures entities (Bang Salon, Capital City Brewing Co., Aura Spa, and of course VIDA) will occupy expanded and improved spaces in what Von Storch calls "a desirable urban lifestyle center." This comes as a relief to the young and restless on a time-crunch, who can now get pampered, styled, buff, and buzzed all in one-stop. The Von Storch owned Capitol City Brewing Company will occupy a newly designed restaurant space intended for upscale dining, closely derived from Storch’s newest restaurant concept 901. The current Von-Storch owned and operated 1612 Cafe will be turned into office space intended for local professional services businesses.

Von Storch hopes that much of this action will eventually be captured on film and aired in a reality TV series. Last year he partnered with New York production company Celebrity Endeavors to film and produce the of the pilot episode of “Complicated Order” (the show's working title). And in January of 2010 Von Storch hosted a premiere screening of the episode at Town Danceboutique. With the ambitious Van Storch at center stage, the proposed series would chronicle the colorful drama of running four immensely successful and still growing businesses, as well as the physical and emotional challenges of working and living with an HIV positive diagnosis. Although many networks have passed on it, a few networks remain interested, and Von Storch plans to shell out his own money to ensure cameras are rolling when he and his colleagues break ground on the 1600 block of U Street near Dupont.

Local firm CORE Architecture & Design provided the vision and design for the addition and renovation and were also instrumental in guiding the project through the necessary zoning and historic approval processes. Keeping it in the family, Stoneking-von Storch Architects of Charlottesville, VA and Hallock Design Group of Miami, FL also assisted in the design process for the new gym. Although Results Gym's lease does not expire until early 2011, initial construction will begin shortly and not interfere with the current tenet's operations. Completion of VIDA Fitness-U Street is expected in August of 2011.

Washington D.C. Real Estate Development News

Georgetown Library Emerges From Ashes Dapper As Ever

Closed since a rooftop fire and water damage compromised its structural integrity in 2007, like a Phoenix, the classy new Georgetown Library will be reborn this Monday, as it once again opens its doors to the public. Luckily for DCMud, DC Public Libraries offered guided media tours, enabling a sneak peak at the completed restoration. The District Library development staff in partnership with Martinez & Johnson Architects have done a remarkable job of resuscitating the historic library, creating a new and improved building, while maintaining and preserving its storied character.

By excavating and expanding the front porch and the back terrace, as well creatively reinventing the top floor attic space and the basement levels, the development team has significantly expanded the total square footage available for library programming. The once gutted and destroyed interior now features improved lighting, state-of-the-art electronics, restored or impeccably replicated millwork and wood furniture, and much more. There is an expanded dedicated space for teens, including several high-end Apple computers for arts and media-specific exploits. A more modern staircase has been installed through the middle of the building, intended to make the multiple levels the library has to offer more visible and obvious to visitors. A larger and artfully designed Peabody Room has been included, housing a collection of materials on the history of Georgetown. A new bright, and more open children’s room with a special glass-enclosed story time space, as well as an outdoor amphitheater-like, stair-cased grass terrace have been created for children's events. Words don't do the new library justice, go see it for yourself Monday. In the meantime, check out the photos below for a glimpse of the restored library.

Library will not tempt fate, fireplaces only for show

New teen room...not

Back facade

Terraced back lawn

Installation of new roof

Peabody Room

Perfectly crafted millwork

Modern stair case

The Fourth Story Man

By Beth Herman

Back in the ‘70s, comedian Steve Allen, already somewhat enshrined for his deft hosting of “The Tonight Show,” won an Emmy, a Peabody, an Encyclopedia Britannica Award and a few others for his cutting edge “Meeting of Minds,” what critics called “the ultimate talk show.” The format for PBS’ “Meeting of Minds,” which Allen created, produced and hosted, was both ingenious and simple: Take a group of history’s seminal characters from different time periods, and with significantly different values and perspectives (Cleopatra, George Patton, Socrates, Machiavelli and Thomas Jefferson, to name a few), put them in a room together to solve a particular problem, and let ‘em rip. Anachronism would never be the same.

On N Street in Georgetown, a three-story row house built in 1960 sits, perhaps anachronistically, among its more genteel and embellished 19^th century brethren. Without vocal chords, and though the interior emulates its more historical neighbors with flourishes such as a curved stair, niches and heavy molding, the home’s real voice is manifested in a closer relationship to its mid-20^th century roots: in other words, somewhat undistinguished.

I Can Dream, Can’t I?

For Douglas Rixey of Rixey-Rixey Architects, a progressive young homeowner and his fiancee’s desire to renovate the interior and also add a floor, thereby breaking through the proverbial Georgetown (glass) ceiling which mandates structures like this generally cannot build up, became a task of monumental proportion mired in research, hearings, personalities, reviews, variances and still more variances, not to mention adroitness with a magic wand and maybe some advanced spell-casting. In addition to navigating a sea of the usual bureaucratic boards and suspects, building up, where the property was concerned, would require feats of Georgetown geometry and construction contortion: The house is ringed by neighbors and their gardens, with no access to a backyard or public alley for scaffolding.

“The client had purchased the home from his parents a couple of years ago and was living there as a bachelor,” Rixey said. “He became engaged, married this month, and they are going to want to start a family and expand the house.” In short, the couple wanted to include a master bedroom suite as a top floor, or fourth story, to the house.

At a total of 4,500 s.f., 1,500 s.f. per floor, and at 58.7 percent lot coverage, the building was already very close to its allowable lot coverage, Rixey explained. In Georgetown, in the client’s zone, acceptable lot coverage is only 60 percent, so to try and build out with a master suite – with only 1.3 percent lot coverage remaining – would mean only a 44 s.f. addition, not exactly the type of master suite experience his client had in mind.

According to Rixey, who, along with wife and partner Victoria, has been plying his craft in Georgetown for 25 years, and rules and review boards withstanding, it’s extremely rare in the area to have a house in the first place that is able to receive another floor. “Most of the historic houses will have a fairly decorative top floor, maybe with turrets, decorative cornice or some sort of architectural embellishment that basically makes it so you can’t add on to the top without severely affecting the character,” he explained. The home in question was somewhat nondescript, “…sort of Colonial Revival,” Rixey said, “but with a very plain top and nothing extraordinary about the house.”

Mr. Rixey Goes to Georgetown

Still, the process to acquire permission to build up was daunting. In most of Georgetown, a three-story or 40-foot limit defines residential architecture. Because the house on N Street was mid-20^th century, however, and though it had three floors, the floor-to-ceiling height on each floor was at 8 and 9 feet, typical of more modern-day construction, Rixey said, where its towering Victorian neighbors’ homes clocked in at 10, 11 and 12 feet per story. In this respect, the house fell far below the mandated 40-foot limit. “We could add an extra floor and still be within Georgetown’s height limit,” Rixey said, noting they still needed a variance for zoning purposes.

Submitting first to the Old Georgetown Board (OGB) as the building is visible from a public space, the action required a simultaneous submission to the Advisory Neighborhood Committee (ANC), which reviews proposals with an eye toward community impact regarding open space, neighbor relations and the like, replete with letters of support from the neighbors. Filing for historic review – another step – was done “in concept,” because the architect wasn’t certain it would really be approved and was attempting to gauge reaction. When the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) did approve the concept, another application to ANC had to be made, this time for the variance.

With the variance process several months in duration and made up of components including public notification of intent by posting signs, photographing signs, notarizing an affidavit that signs were posted in a specific time frame and providing names and addresses of all neighbors within a 200-foot radius, a September hearing was scheduled. “The issue,” Rixey maintained, recalling that the 90-minute hearing was more like an inquisition as these things go, “was that they needed to be convinced we couldn’t glean extra living space by excavating below grade or doing an at-grade addition.” The dearth of remaining allowable lot coverage precluded an at-grade addition, and regarding a possible basement addition, the house had been built by excavating into a hillside, Rixey explained, basically already siting three sides of the first floor below grade, except for the façade. “In any other jurisdiction, the first floor of this house would have been considered a basement because of its lack of perimeter exposure and we wouldn’t have needed variance for what would only be a two-story house,” Rixey said. “D.C. is the only jurisdiction that measures the number of stories at the front of the building.”

Capitol Risk

Among more than a dozen fourth story design alternatives presented for review in the process was a loggia, or balcony, on the front facing N. Street, which also faced south, providing a view out on the city from an outside terrace. With rooftop decks or terraces controversial in Georgetown, and typically not approved, Rixey’s design was no exception. (According to Rixey, however, the front balcony was actually a response to design constraints – an attempt to make the mass of the building recede somewhat and make it a little more special than simply a front façade.) The client also wanted a lot more glass, and glazing is antithetical to historic work, Rixey said. Nevertheless a modern take on a mansard roof with a dormer, though not classically detailed, was approved.

With a final historic review step remaining in the approval process contingent on permit and construction drawings, actual construction remains another conundrum (here’s where the magic wand and advanced spell-casting may again be advantageous).

“Construction (expected to begin in the spring) will be tricky,” Rixey said. The building has some rear alley access but cannot be accessed from either side due to neighbors’ properties, which include a beautiful garden on one and a narrow, private walkway on the other. Building scaffolding and staging construction equipment conventionally is out of the question. To that end, the architect is contemplating such attack modes as prefabricating the brick worksite walls in sections, off-site, and having them delivered and installed by crane. According to Rixey, prefab walls are common in commercial work but not in residential. Another strategy is to suspend scaffolding from the building and not touch the ground – to hang it off the side of the building, cantilevered out over the neighbors’ property. “It’s iffy, to say the least,” he conceded, affirming that logistics are still very much in the investigation stage.

“Five years ago, the extra floor would never have been approved,” Rixey said. “The community would be up in arms about people doing additions and taking up open space. Now times have changed; people’s attitudes have changed. I kind of expected it, but it still amazes me that this additional floor was approved.”

Homeless Shelter Out, Highland Park Addition In

A Street Sense article recently expressed worry over the impending closing of the La Casa homeless shelter at 1436 Irving Street, NW and the prospect of 72 extra homeless men hitting the streets just in time for hypothermia season. The emptying shelter will in fact give way to construction crews and wrecking balls, as the property is set to feature a 143-unit addition to Donatelli Development's adjacent Highland Park apartment building, as well as brand new 82-bed community based residential facility.

Although the development team successfully obtained a two-year PUD extension from the Zoning Commission earlier this summer, citing (surprise) difficulty securing financing giving the economic downturn, the District will still follow through with the closing of La Casa. Trailers will be removed by November 1st, paving the way for construction to begin shortly after. Reggie Saunders of the DC Department of Human Services confirmed that the shelter will officially close this Friday, October 15th. With PUD extension in hand, developers will have until June 27, 2012 to file for a building permit, and until June 27, 2013 to commence construction, but Chris Donatelli, President of Donatelli Development, insists that the soon-to-begin environmental remediation work and demolition will quickly give way to actual construction in the coming months.

The news does not come as a surprise to Steven Jackson, Program Coordinator at La Casa Shelter, who says he's been "operating under the assumption that the shelter will shut down this Friday." Jackson says that plans have been arranged to accommodate current shelter residents by either placing them in "permanent supportive housing" or "reassigning them to alternative emergency shelters." Jackson confirmed that a few of the men had been reassigned to the La Casa Transitional Rehabilitation Program (TRP), a more comprehensive six-month program that "provides temporary residential services for homeless men to help them to achieve self sufficiency."

Old rendering

Originally approved as an 86-foot, 69 unit-addition, Zoning granted the development team a modification to their PUD late last week, accepting the applicant's plea to expand their residential plans from the original 69 to 143 units and push the building up to 90 feet. Additionally, a setback penthouse level will rise nine feet atop the roof line. Twenty percent of the new apartments will be "affordable," marketed at 80% AMI. The modification also permits architects to redesign the exterior facades to more smoothly blend the addition with the existing Highland Park apartment building. The newly amended PUD also rids developers of their parking space obligation, as future residents will be allotted space in the already constructed below-grade garage next door. The new Highland Park West apartment tower will front Irving Street and be directly connected to the original Highland Park. The new shelter residential facility will occupy the back half of the lot, and will stand separately from the apartment buildings.

Torti Gallas, designers of the adjacent Highland Park apartments, have passed off architectural duties to Bethesda's GTM Architects for the new addition. Initial designs which included a lily-like glass building called the Calla Lily, a design that would have been a significant departure from Highland Park and from the architectural standards of Columbia Heights, has been scratched. Instead of creativity and innovation, architects have tapped their best tracing abilities, as "the new building will look like an exact, matching extension of Highland Park," Donatelli explained. But hey, why mess up a good thing. Highland Park has been a popular residential success since it opened in 2008, and Donatelli confirms that the last retail space has just been leased, soon to feature a brand new sports bar named Lou's Bar and Grill.

It remains unclear how the District will foot the bill for the new shelter, or who will operate it once it's reopened, says Stephen Jackson of La Casa. Donatelli doesn't know either: "We're responsible for the demolition and the design plans, after that it's all on them." Them being the District government, and Lydia DePillis's reporting at City Paper makes it pretty clear that whatever money had been previously set aside for a new La Casa is now lost or spent, and one way or the other, unaccounted for. If and when the new La Casa is made a reality, the building will be quite an upgrade from the current mess of trailers that occupy the property. The planned shelter will not serve "emergency" needs, sandwiching 15 men into bunk-lined trailers, but instead feature private one-bed apartments, better suited to rehabilitate homeless men with drug and alcohol addictions and mental health problems. The Coalition for the Homeless, a nonprofit that currently operates the La Casa shelter, seems optimistic about its continued involvement at the Columbia Heights location, as its website reads: "The La Casa TRP was temporarily relocated to 1131 Spring Road, NW by the District government until the NEW state of the art La Casa Multicultural Center is built at its current location on 1436 Irving Street, NW." But then you would have known some of this had you shelled out the $1 for Street Sense last week.

DC Real Estate Development News

DC Title Insurance Rates to Become Uniform

Shopping around for title insurance will soon be a thing of the past. Legislation that regulates the price of title insurance goes into effect January 1, 2011, putting Washington DC in the same position as most other states, with regulated published rates for the purchase of title insurance irrespective of title company.

The Budget Support Act of 2011, passed September 24th, contained a provision that gave the DC Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking (which can't seem to get its website working) the ability to regulate rates to insure property title against challenges. Maryland and Virginia both have similar regulatory regimes, and title attorneys say they have not seen much difference in the "published" rates versus the market rate, but the bill also requires licensing of title attorneys, and while that will add a bureaucratic veneer to the title industry, it will also give DC's title attorneys reciprocity in other jurisdictions where now there is none.

"Its a revenue source for the District" says title attorney Marty Stanton of KVS Law Group, a law firm that performs settlement and legal work in each of the three jurisdictions. "But I haven't seen an impact in Virginia and Maryland on the residential consumer." Though Stanton concedes there might be scarlet-colored tape, he comments that the upside is "more legitimacy to the process, and [is] ultimately better for the consumer. Rates in the 3 local jurisdictions are now competitive." The law applies to both commercial and residential property but does not affect other fees that could be charged by a title company that therefore differentiate settlement pricing within the District.




But there is concern that a proposed bill that would exempt commercial property from regulation, sought by the DC Building Industry Association, would give commercial purchasers the ability to negotiate better rates, forcing higher rates on residential purchasers. Roy Kaufman of Jackson Campbell is the lobbyist for the District of Columbia Land Title Association, and thinks the exemption is unwarranted. "Land is land is land," says Kaufman, "any exemption would be inequitable...Every other state regulates title insurance, if we are not the last we are one of the last."

Gail Edwards, Executive Vice President of DCBIA, says the market forces ensure the best rates. "It raises the cost of development by thousands and thousands of dollars, that's bad for development. The rates have always been competitive in the city, title companies have to market themselves, but with filed rates everybody pays the same." Edwards says regulated rates will raise the cost "dramatically."

Washington DC real estate news

Region's Tallest Building Breaks Ground in Rosslyn

Monday Properties' 35-story, 390 foot office building will break ground on Thursday in Rosslyn, setting the stage for what will be the region's tallest building when completed, at least for a while. Developers will hold a public ceremony for the 580,000 s.f. building that will rise above the Rosslyn Metro station.


The superlative for "tallest" is a contested one, with JBG noting their that their 31-story Central Place tower will also rise 390 feet, nearly the tallest allowable by the FAA along the Reagan National flight path, which caps at 500 feet above sea level. The buildings also both straddle N. Moore at nearly equal 80-foot elevations; nearly, but not exactly. Officials at Monday assure DCMud that their site sits a few feet higher in elevation, giving theirs the edge. In any event, with JBG's project in check, Monday's claim to size will not be in dispute when the building completes in late 2013. Nor will Monday's second first: the first LEED platinum certified office building completed in Virginia, if all goes as planned. Bragging rights for both should allow for equally high leasing rates, and despite a lack of tenants, Monday chose to approach one of the region's lowest commercial vacancy rates by self-financing $30m of the $300m project, something JBG officials must be eying with intensity. Monday says it is confident that that this will attract financial suitors, but that they are prepared to move forward with or without a financial partner, and promise an anchor tenant announcement within 10 months.

Arlington approved the project in December of 2007, but it has been on hold for nearly 3 years as developers sought financing and the right market. Davis Carter Scott designed the skyscraper that Clark will build, with Gensler assisting on interior layouts.

Congressman Jim Moran will join other speakers at the groundbreaking ceremony this Thursday at 11am, true construction will be underway by the end of the month.

Rosslyn Virginia real estate development news

Clarendon: Urban Planners Taken with New View of Urban Churches

Late last year, the Views at Clarendon emerged unscathed from a cloud of lawsuits and officially kicked off construction. Now one of the region's more intriguing mixed-use projects is on schedule, and attracting national attention as a model for unique partnerships. The Views at Clarendon Corporation's mixed-use, mixed-income building will hold 70 affordable apartments and 46 market rate apartments, not so outstanding by itself, but that it was done through the auspices of the church is turning the heads of urban planners around the country.

As the First Baptist Church of Clarendon faced a budget shortfall a decade ago, it could have reacted in the typical fashion, selling out to a developer and moving to a cheaper, less urbanized community. That would have shut down the church's daycare center and local mission. Instead, the church chose to protect its historic building, stay local, keep the daycare center and double down on its mission by setting up a non-profit corporation to run an affordable housing project. First Baptist - now the Church at Clarendon - sold its air rights to the non-profit, of which it held 3 of 7 board seats, allowing the non-profit to cater to low-income and disabled residents, consistent with the church mission. Other urban churches have retained a portion of the new structure after selling its land, but the model of expanding its influence is a new one. Architect Michael Foster, a principal of Arlington's MTFA Architecture, thinks of this as a paradigm shift. "This has really been watched closely, and nationally, for mixing an existing church at the base of the building in this way. Most mixed-use is office-retail-residential. One that's dominated by public housing is not totally unprecedented, but as a land-use model, it helps us all think a little differently about preserving the role of churches and communities."

Not all the attention has been positive. Local groups tried to stop the in-fill project, then protested that Arlington's subsidies for the new non-profit Views at Clarendon constituted an Establishment Clause violation, and the organization found themselves twice in the chambers of the Virginia Supreme Court and several times the subject of Washington Post news fodder. Vindicated by the courts, the non-profit has now nearly finished excavating the site and underpinning the church, and expects to start building up by next month. The church "sandwich" will give them two floors as a condominium and a 3-floor building on the side, the non-profit will own the apartments above and the parking garage below.

Of the 70 affordable apartments, the majority will be priced at 60% AMI, six of the apartments will be 100% accessible (visitable and adaptable), 12 units will have "support of services" provided to those with disabilities, and six of them will be offered to families under 50% AMI. The church will continue to operate the 180-child daycare center, Arlington's largest, as well as expanding its urban ministry, all within a block of Metro. Foster, the project architect, thinks this will help churches remain active in the social fabric, and that the importance of this should not be underestimated. "This represents a dramatic change in how the church engages the community," and that planning organizations are taking note. "We've been getting many calls about this" says Foster, whose firm is also working on a similar type of project in Bethesda, with the church as developer rather than outgoing owner. The non-profit Views has hired Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) as a consultant to help them achieve their affordable housing vision.

The old steeple will remain the tallest structure, with the new building rising just below the steeple height by design. Foster says the building is meant to adapt a mid-rise to colonial architectural style. "The base of the building is designed to fit in with the colonial heritage with the church steeple and remaining school. Its not really meant to be pure colonial, and not meant to be neoclassical, but it does represent what remains on site and the compatibility with the adjacent neighborhood."

Arlington, VA Real Estate Development News

Art House Open House This Thursday

Sponsored Story
Arbor Media and Realtor Megan Shapiro of Remax Allegiance Capitol Hill present the first autumn "Art House Open House" event at 748 Seventh St., SE, Unit C. The public is invited to a happy hour Thursday October 14, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm to browse the work of local artists and to view the property. Wine and amuse-bouches will be served compliments of Marvelous Market Capitol Hill.

The work of the following artists will be represented:
Geoff Ault- photography (CITY Gallery)
Tim Conlon- graffiti artist (Studio H)
Ellen Cornett- pastels (CITY Gallery)
Sherill Gross- cut outs (CITY Gallery)
Liz Lescault- ceramic scuplture (CITY Gallery)
Katherine Mann- mixed media painting (Hamiltonian Gallery)
Steven Pearson- mixed media painting (Studio H)
Pam Rogers- mixed media painting (CITY Gallery)

About the Property
Perched above seventh Street SE only two beautiful blocks from Eastern Market Metro, 748 Seventh Street SE Unit C epitomizes Capitol Hill luxury. The open floor plan of the living space easily accommodates all of your guests both for dinner and for cocktails around a built-in gas fireplace. The beautiful Italian glass tile backsplash of the home's kitchen is a work of art in its own right. Your inner-chef will marvel at the stainless steel appliances and ample granite counter-space. As an added bonus, the kitchen spills onto a family room and a private outdoor terrace. Upstairs, the master bedroom suite boasts year-round views of the Capitol, a massive walk-in closet and a bright, spa-like bathroom. Down the hallway, two bedrooms and an adjoining bathroom finish off this 2000 square foot new construction masterpiece. In addition, you'll never have to circle the block for parking as the unit comes with its own secured space behind the building.

About Art House Open House
As native Washingtonians, we can assure you that the most talked about topic in Washington has never been politics- it has always been real estate! Art House Open House, professionally curated by gallery director and owner Phil Hutinet, gives both real estate hounds and art lovers the opportunity to preview DC's hottest real estate while viewing the work of renowned local artists. See what art work looks like when it is taken out of the gallery and installed in the home.

Into the Light

By Beth Herman

In 1882, when the Edison Illuminating Company shined its 110-volt incandescent light on a brave new world from the Pearl Street Station, the lives of an estimated 59 trend-setting customers in lower Manhattan would never be the same.

When lighting specialist John Seward entered the world of lighting design and sales 101 years later, and with Edison’s parturient idea of the light bulb morphing into such behemoth concepts as fluorescent, metal halide and halogen lamps (or bulbs), compact fluorescent lights (CFL’s), decorative neon and that swinging ‘70s and’ 80s confection: track lighting, consumers were faced with choices rivaled only by the late 20^th century’s emerging electronics technology.

Confronted even more today with ecological, economical, aesthetic and progressive choices that may have rendered even the reportedly indefatigable Mr. Edison catatonic, merchants, designers, engineers and consumers face an evolving market that, by the 4^th of July, has already relegated the previous January’s breakthrough product to the cornfield.

The Incredible Shrinking Filament

“The tendency is actually about less lighting now, if anything, in the interest of energy costs,” said Seward, who is now president of D.C.-based Illuminations, Inc., which provides product showrooms and expert solutions for lighting. “Rather than just putting in a dozen recessed figures at 150-watts a pop, people are much more concerned with the number of fixtures that are going in there,” he explained, noting consumer reaction to trends that point to a smaller carbon footprint.

Observing that the commercial lighting industry has changed entirely with a stringent 1-watt per s.f. government mandate, Seward said the requirement has filtered into the residential market as well. Savvy homeowners are increasingly aware that incandescent lamps (or bulbs), such as the 100-, 75-, 60-watt versions, are scheduled to disappear from the market, with the 100-watt lamp gone within the next 24 months, Seward believes. “People are beginning to wonder, when they purchase a fixture, is it going to be adaptable to the changes in lamps that we’re now seeing,” he said.

LED There Be Light

According to D.C. interior designer Susan Stine, president of RedTeam Strategies, everyone wants to switch to LED (light emitting diodes) lighting. “All of my clients - commercial and multifamily residential - they’re all beginning to look at this technology,” she said, citing LED’s energy and cost savings, as well as its property limitations, in its current form. “It costs $360 a year to operate one (conventional) light bulb; it costs $36 a year to operate one LED bulb,” she explained. The problems, however, are that because the technology is still in a relatively nascent stage, LED lights are not powerful enough, as they are more about accent or spotlighting, and their “color temperature,” or range of color, is lifeless or very white - at the higher end of the color spectrum. “We are used to incandescent (and halogen) light, which is at the lower end,” Stine said, adding that residential, hospitality and retail expectations are in line with those products’ warmer, more natural light. 

In fact Seward said that when sustainability-minded residential customers ask to do an entire home using LED technology, he dissuades them and opts instead for LED in tandem with more mature forms of light. “It’s coming, but the technology just isn’t there yet,” he said of the former.

Acknowledging that his showrooms have always displayed a lot of fluorescent fixtures, Seward, whose business caters largely to the commercial trade, said the merits of using CFL technology include longer lamp life over incandescent, as well as a color temperature that doesn’t emit heat, unlike the former, thereby straining the HVAC system. 

When residential customers are approached about using fluorescent lighting, however, Seward said many recoil at the thought, recalling early incarnations of the technology which rendered it cold, flat and blue or white, much like LED lighting is now. Fluorescent lighting works much better with skin tone now, according to Seward, and color temperature can be variegated, making it more acceptable for kitchen and bathroom use, with the only caveat being CFL’s inability to work with dimmers. “Most people want the fluctuation in a dining room to create different atmospheres in that room,” he explained.

Time for Recess

Where recessed lighting is concerned, people are beginning to embrace the idea of CFL’s in their recessed fixtures, according to Seward, because again incandescent light is synonymous with added heat. Fluorescents’ longer lamp life - about 10,000 hours as opposed to 500-700 hours for an incandescent A-19 bulb - is important, though it is nowhere near as long as LED lighting where a fixture reportedly left on, unattended, could potentially last nine years. “We’re just reaching the end of tests on LED to figure out how long they do last,” Seward said, in that they are part of an industry that has not yet been regulated. 

Somewhere in the middle, halogen lights, popular in retail spaces and in lighting residential art due to their color rendition, have a lamp life of about 3,000 hours.

On the environmental downside, fluorescents contain mercury, Stine explained, which creates a disposal problem. To that end, she often uses metal halide, around since the early 1960s, in her commercial designs. Though it has slow start-up properties, “it’s a very bright, powerful, clear light, and low-wattage."

Tasks-R-Us

With task lighting the new black, or rather green, and consequently in a huge bow to sustainable office practices, Seward said that instead of just covering the ceiling with light, businesses are using more and concentrated light such as a 3-watt LED task light. “You can see how that would take precedence over a 24- or 36-watt fluorescent in the ceiling,” he affirmed. Citing a trend popular in Europe for about eight years, high-powered fluorescent floor lamps with motion sensors act like torchieres, Seward explained, and are portable so if you change your space, you just pick up the lighting and take it with you.

At the University of Maryland in Baltimore, Illuminations, Inc. is involved in a 70-office project where floor lamps with bases in the shape of a platter, with powerful fluorescent lamps in the base, use the ceiling off of which to bounce light. A diffuser also impacts the light, so that task lighting is as available as the aforementioned ceiling light.

“Everybody seems to be concerned about doing the right thing,” Seward said, comparing the explosive growth of the lighting industry only to that of computers. “The industry is changing dramatically, and as business owners and lighting design specialists, we are constantly researching what’s next.”

All hail the Pearl Street Station.